The world's most famous 41-year-old single woman taking on the part of a 40-year-old woman who gets pregnant by artificial insemination: Jennifer Aniston knew she was heading into a media storm when she took the part for "The Switch."

But the star admits she had to put that out of her mind to take the role alongside Jason Bateman.

"I usually try to stay away from making my career choices based on what the tabloids are saying," Aniston said at the film's press day. "I would be really screwed up if I did. That's just silly."

But the persistent stories have followed. During the press conference for the film she was asked repeatedly about possible pregnancies and whether she would undergo her own artificial insemination ("I don't have plans like that, no," she said when asked point blank). Aniston has also been thrust in a national debate with Bill O'Reilly over comments she made about having a child without a man.

This is par for the course for a modern celebrity and something Aniston cannot allow to dominate her choice of movie parts.

"She's a celebrity, but she's an actress first," co-director Josh Gordon tells PopcornBiz. "She related to the material and made the choice first. The celebrity implications have to come second in this."

Will Speck, the movie's other director, tells us that there was no issue convincing Aniston to come on, despite the tabloid-friendly built-in-story the movie's premise offers.

"What she really loved is the idea of the movie," he says. "I never felt it was a challenge to coax her into it."

Aniston did allow herself to take some shots at the tabloids ruling the entertainment industry. She laughed that she now has "13 children" by their count and called them "powerful reading material" in a sarcastic manner.

Her co-star Jason Bateman added they are like good comic books.

"It's all fiction," he said. "Sometimes they come up with interesting crap. Sometimes they come up with boring crap."